Table Of ContentPostcolonialism and
Postsocialism in Fiction and Art
Madina Tlostanova, The Sublime of Globalization: Sketches on Transcultural
SubjectivityandAesthetics
MadinaTlostanova,GenderEpistemologiesandEurasianBorderlands
Madina Tlostanova and Walter Mignolo, Learning to Unlearn: Decolonial
ReflectionsfromEurasiaandtheAmericas
MadinaTlostanova
Postcolonialism
and Postsocialism
in Fiction and Art
Resistance and Re-existence
MadinaTlostanova
LinköpingUniversity
Linköping,Sweden
ISBN978-3-319-48444-0 ISBN978-3-319-48445-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48445-7
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A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I warmly thank Walter Mignolo, Pedro Pablo Gómez, and Rolando
Vázquez – my decolonial colleagues – for inviting me to publish a series
ofarticlesondecolonialaesthesisintheirco-editedcollectionsandjournals
including CALLE14, Estéticas y Opción Decolonial, Arte y Estética en la
EncrucijadaDescolonial,andSocialText.Periscope,aswellasforgivingme
achancetosharemyideasandintuitionsontheintersectionsofpostcolo-
nial and postsocialist artistic and existential experiences at the annual
Decolonial Summer School ‘Stolen memories: museums, slavery and (de)
coloniality’ and ‘What does it meanto decolonize?Introducing the deco-
lonialoption’inMiddelburg,theNetherlands,in2015andin2016.
I would also like to thank my postsocialist colleagues from Poland,
Slovakia,Estonia,Latvia,andRomania,withwhomwehavecollaborated
indifferentbookandjournalprojectsandconferencesontheintersections
ofpostsocialist andpostcolonial sensibilities.Ourmanyilluminatingcon-
versations,discussions,anddebatesduringandaftertheseeventswerevery
helpful for the gestation of this book. In particular I would like to thank
Professor Dorota Kołodziejczyk who invited me to participate in the
special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing ‘On Colonialism,
Communism and East-Central Europe – Some Reflections’ that she
co-edited together with Cristina Sandru. I would also like to express
my gratitude to Doctor Dobrota Pucherova and Doctor Róbert Gáfric
for inviting me to give a keynote speech at their 2014 conference
‘Postcolonialism and East-Central European Literatures’ in Bratislava
(Slovakia) and for including my article in their co-edited collection
Postcolonial Europe? Essays on Post-Communist Literatures and Cultures
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(2015). Those were wonderful opportunities for exploring my ideas in
international contexts and for developing the main issues and ideas of
this book.
IamgratefulaswelltomygenderstudiesandBalticstudiescolleagues
from two Swedish universities – Linköping University and Södertorn
University. In the last three years the Center for Baltic and East
European Studies (CBEES) at Södertorn University and the Department
of Gender Studies at Linköping University invited me several times as a
scholar-in-residence, visiting scholar, and keynote speaker which has
allowed me to present my ongoing investigations in preparation for this
book at different workshops, higher seminars, and international confer-
ences.IamparticularlythankfultoProfessorRebeckaLettevall–director
of CBEES at Södertorn University – and Professor Nina Lykke from
Linköping University, as well as to my younger colleagues – Professor
Suruchi Thapar-Björkert and Doctor Redi Koobak – with whom I have
beencollaboratingintenselyonthefeministissuesofthepostcolonialand
postsocialist intersectionsin our jointpublications andongoingprojects.
I would also like to thank several museums, galleries, curators, and art
theorists for their generous invitations to participate in the educational
and theoretical programmes of a number of exhibitions, biennials of
contemporary art, and other related events including Manifesta 10, the
educational programme of the Moscow Centre of Contemporary Art,
Moscow Jewish Museum and Centre of Tolerance, Moscow Biennale
of Contemporary Art, Aspan Gallery in Almaty (Kazakhstan), ‘Media
Impact’artivistfestival,VictorMisiano’smultipleprojectsonpostsocialist
artistsandimaginariesandparticularlyhisinvitationstopublishseveralof
my texts in his Moscow Art Magazine. This experience was invaluable for
workingon thisbook.
I am very grateful to the anonymous reader whose constructive and
well-meaning criticism helped me a lot in revising the manuscript at the
finalstage.
Last but not least I would like to thank the artists and writers whose
inspiringworksandreflectionsthattheysharedwithmeinourinterviews
and personal dialogues were immensely important as well. Among them
I am especially grateful to Ariel Dorfman, Afanassy Mamedov, Taus
Makhacheva, Vyacheslav Akhunov, Saule Suleimenova, Ciprian Muresan,
andAslan Gaisumov.
P
ROLOGUE
Let me start with a story that I was told by Indian scholar Kalpana Sahni
who wrote a book on Russian/Soviet Orientalism debunking the notor-
ious myth of proletarian internationalism (Sahni 1997). Sahni’s story of
the2010sdemonstratestheshiftsthathavetakenplaceinthelasttwenty-
fiveyearsplacingmanyofthepostsocialistpeopleinastrangedelocalized
colonialsituation–colonizednotbyoneparticularcountryanymore,but
by the global coloniality of neoliberal capitalism which forces the post-
socialistsubjects tomigrate tothe globalNorth andbecome contempor-
aryequivalentsofthecolonialsubalterns.Paradoxicallytodaythemasters
are not necessarily the white privileged Europeans but quite often those
whowerepreviouslytheclassicalsubalternsthemselves.Theraceindicator
so powerful before, the symbolic belonging to Europe, goes to pieces
leaving us with a strange picture of the poorly communicating remnants
of the two grand modernity projects – the Western (European) liberal/
neoliberal one and the Socialist failed modernity replaced today with
various nation-state projects which often go under the pressures of neo-
liberalglobalizationandthenecessitytosurvivebetweenthestrongerand
more aggressivepowers.
SahniwasinLondon,helpingherdaughter-in-lawwithhernewlyborn
baby. The daughter-in-law is originally fromIndia but brought up in the
USA where her parents – people of humble backgrounds – went forty
years ago to improve their prospects. The father became an engineer and
the mother became a doctor. Now both are retired and wealthy Indian-
Americans who rented a flat in London and hired a Lithuanian lady
cleaner, who ran from house to house trying to make enough money to
vii
viii PROLOGUE
send back home to her son who is studying to become a doctor. This
LithuanianladywasaMarathonrunnerinhercountrywhere,intheyears
of the Soviet occupation, she had a standard flat and the meagre free
amenities provided by the Socialist system. Today her son works in three
places to make ends meet. Sahni was curious to watch the conversations
between the Indian doctor who did not know how exactly to treat this
‘servant’ and the obsequious Lithuanian woman. One made it from the
bottom up; the other’s life came crashing down. One day the Lithuanian
woman mentioned that she had to get home soon because her son was
arriving for a few days before he performed in Berlin. Seeing a surprised
look, she explained that he was a member of the Lithuanian State
PhilharmonicOrchestra...
IntellingthisstorySahniwasnotdefendingsocialismbutrathertrying
toreflectontheironiesofhistorythathasplacedthepostsocialistotherin
amuchmoredifficultandunwinningconditionthanthepostcolonialone
whohasbeengraduallyenteringtheex-metropolisandwinninghisorher
placethere. Inthe postsocialist case the trajectory wasoftenthe reverse.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction:ALeap Into the Void? 1
2 HowtoDisengage fromthe Coloniality of Perception 23
3 DecolonialArt in EurasianBorderlands 45
4 Decolonizingthe Museum 73
5 Postsocialist/PostcolonialTempo-Localities 93
6 Tricksters,Jesters, Qalandars 129
7 Coloniality ofMemory atthe Postcolonial/Postsocialist
Juncture 157
8 Afterword: AnOpen Finale 193
Bibliography 205
Index 219
ix
